Address Format

In Denmark it would be:

Albert Smith (given name surname)

Vasvári Pál utca 3, Fszt, 7 (street name street number , floor (note: Denmark, like most of Europe, starts with 0 = ground floor) , unit number or tv / mf / th = left / middle / right)

1061 Budapest (city postal code Note: double blank for easier handling by computer)

Hungary (country)

I am using the same information for easier reference.

I’ve always wondered if these address differences imply a differing cultural viewpoint in locating a place. In the US, the UK and the ex-British colonies, and some of Europe the view is from the person outwards - me, my flat in my building, my street, my town, my country. In Hungary it appears to be me, my town, my building in my street, my flat/appartment, and I’m sure some other countries visualise it differently again. Perhaps this became regulated when postal services became common so that the postman could find the right home?

There is something cultural in every detail. Part of the fun of travel and learning. You have a good example of looking beyond face value.

The international notation for phone numbers, eg +41 79 1234 567 is what everyone should always use. This is how I enter all numbers (even local ones) in my phone. It is what I put on business cards and correspondence, and I see others increasingly do that as well.
That way the number will always work, regardless of where in the world I am.
(So for Americans: You would enter all numbers like +1 xxx yyy zzzz)

Regarding adresses:

In Switzerland we do not use apartment and floor numbers. A building has one address, and if there are multiple apartments in a building the postman will look at the name. Which is why the first thing you do when you move in is make sure your name is on the mailbox.

A speciality is that in quite a few small villages there are no street names, and houses either have no number, or are numbered more or less ad hoc (chronologically usually). Which can make finding a house a bit tricky at times. Where I live the postman just knows where everyone lives, so this will actually get delivered.

John Smith
3823 Wengen
Switzerland

But I usually do add the chalet name, and the house number to it. In Wengen these have been handed out by the Fire Insurance (as they need to be able to put something on the contract), and are all over the place. Do not assume that 1520 is next to 1518 for example.

WengenK, I pointed out the phone numbers because often listings use the local format. Look up a shop here and you might see 06 30 111 000. An American on an American phone can dial that number all day and get nothing. You have to do a little pre-trip research to know that 06 must be replaced with +36. There is nothing intuitive about that.

The rest is fascinating. We are very regimented here, mainly for fire and police service. They want to be able to find you, so most jurisdictions require the house number to be in a certain size and location on the street face of the building.

And this is the minimum you need to get a letter delivered in Ireland, although people usually still put the address on the letters.

Joe Bloggs,
F31 YW98,
Ireland.

The 7 digit code is called an AirCode, the first three letters of which are the postal routing code and the remain 4 digits identify the specific building within the routing area.

Globally there are over 30 address standards afaik from a specialised company working on this topic.

Germany version of example:

Albert SMITH
Vasvári Pál utca 3
Fszt 7
1061 Budapest
HUNGARY

Deutsche Post example for Portugal (link to picture).

The language specific vowels are a challenge.
The German "ß" (Eszett) is often interpreted as a "b" but it is spoken "sz" and written replaced by "ss".

Some very important receivers have own zip codes, for example German government - if someone wants to write a letter to our government:
Bundesregierung
11044 Berlin
Germany

Phone numbers have an international ITU standard number structure (E.164) which makes one number working in every network from every place on Earth. Officially it is called recommendation - in reality no company would dare to differ from the standard because of perceived malfunctions and potentially not realized revenues.

Slightly different but still relevant is each country writing dates differently in numerical form.

In Canada we would write, for today: 28-8-24.
In the US, I believe it would be 8-28-24?

I know this leads to confusion and mistakes in booking events, tours, etc. especially for days and months with one digit.

In Switzerland we write dates like that : 30.8.2024
So using dots, not dashes or slashes...

Anyway. What I usually do is write the month, either full, or abbreviated. 30 AUG 2024 should be understandable by anyone...

douglas, I was have having coffee this morning with a couple of tourists from Australia. We were discussing "differences" and I knew the which side of the road to drive on conversation was about to come up. So, i asked, "Do you know what side of the road they drive on in the US?" To which he responded, "Of course, the right side." "Case closed," I said, "lets move on to the next subject".

Personally I find the left side the "right" side to drive on. Whenever I drive in the UK or Australia (or Malta, quite the experience) I cannot help but feel that it is somehow more natural.

From the guy that writes dates wrong.

To be fair on the dates.... Since we started using computers its become common the date things Letter.Smith.2024.12.30.docx ends up sorted on the drive properly. Likewise the 24 hour clock. But metric is still evil.

Germany:
Max Mustermann
Musterstraße 25
12345 Musterstadt
GERMANY (if from abroad)

Muster means sample or example

Tel: 040 1234567 is how a phone number is written locally, with 0 always being dialled and the 40 being the area code (in this case Hamburg). If dialling from abroad, you would dial +49 and drop the zero, and if from the US, you dial 011 to start. So that number in Hamburg when called from the US would be 011 49 40 1234567.

United Kingdom

Mr É de Mystère
221, Baker Street <=comma optional, a bit old fashioned; modern = no comma
LONDON <= post town should be block caps
SW1A 0AA <=post code with central space

ENGLAND (or WALES or SCOTLAND or NORTHERN IRELAND) or UK

--
then optionally, on the post town line, especially if the town is not the post town,

Chipping Campden, Glos <= Village or town, comma, ceremonial county or abbreviation

or

Chipping Campden <=village or town with post town immediately below, with or without ceremonial county
CHELTENHAM

Not confusing is it?

UK telephone numbers can be interesting.

They are composed of Country Code, Dialing Code (like an exchange in the US, remember those?) and Number.

Country Code is 44, usually indicated as +44, the "+" being the indication of an international call

Dialing code can be of variable length, 0207 for inner London, 0208 for outer London. 0nnnn for most non-London, 03nn for non geographic local numbers, 07nnn for mobile numbers, and a whole bunch of special and expensive numbers, 0800 or 0808 free. The leading zero is part of the dialing code and required for domestic dialing, omit the leading zero from overseas. If the number is expecting overseas calls the leading zero is often printed with parenthesis around that zero - +44(0)207...

The actual number can be of variable length, as few as 4 digits and as many as 7. Most non-London numbers are 6 digits.

Some pedants will say that London Dialing Codes are actually 0207n or 0208n and the London numbers are 6 digits, but I don't go in for that modern rubbish. Bah Humbug. It is as I said and I don't brook modern confusion.

British dates follow the convention of most of the world, day-month-year, using either a slash "/" or dash "-", so that

2/9/1666 is the second of September, not the ninth of February.

Great Fire of London, not just enough time to get your Valentine's Day cards.

Yes, Samuel Pepys participated in Valentine's Day. Wait until you find out who his Valentine was....

With the German format for address and telephone number, regardless of the sender is sending the correspondence, ie envelope, postcard, from overseas or within Germany, I underline the entire address line , not merely the city but its zip code as well, regardless what the Writing Reform movement dictates.

That address line used to be the 2nd line with the 3rd line indicating the street address.